Blood on Copperhead Trail

“How does she seem?”

“Like herself,” Laney admitted. “A little disoriented, but normal enough.”

Doyle touched her arm again. It seemed to be a habit with him, a way to connect to the person he was talking to. Unfortunately, it seemed to be having a completely disarming effect on her. She’d just told him more about her family than she’d told anyone in ages, including the people she’d worked with now for almost five years.

Maybe he was a better cop than she had realized.

“You think it’s okay for me to go in there and talk to your sister now?” His hand made one more light sweep down her arm before dropping to his side.

“I think so. They’re not giving her anything like a sedative—they don’t want her to sleep much while they’re observing her for the concussion.”

He looked toward the door. “Did the doctors tell you whether or not it would be okay to tell her the truth about Missy Adderly?”

Laney recoiled at the thought. “They didn’t say, but—”

“I know you want to protect her, especially now. And if we didn’t have a missing girl out there somewhere—”

“I know.” She’d experienced only an hour’s worth of sick worry about her sister’s whereabouts. The Adderlys were still in that hell, made worse by knowing that one of their girls was dead. “Okay. But I want to be in there with you when you talk to her. I’m pretty sure my mother will want to be there, too.”

“Fine. But you have to let me ask her the hard questions. You know we’re working with a ticking clock.”

She knew. If there was any chance Joy Adderly was still alive, time was critical.

Her sister was awake when they entered the hospital room. Laney introduced Doyle to Janelle, explaining he was there to ask her some questions. Her mother looked worried, but Janelle looked almost relieved. “Do you know where Joy and Missy are?”

Doyle pulled up the chair Laney had vacated, getting down to Janelle’s eye level. “I know where Missy is, but it’s bad news.”

Janelle’s eyes struggled to focus on his face. “She’s dead, isn’t she?”

“I’m sorry. We found Missy this morning, shortly before we found you.”

Her eyes filled with tears. “Was she shot like I was?”

He nodded, his expression gentle with compassion and something else, some dark, private sadness hovering behind his green eyes.

Only the sound of Janelle’s soft sniffles dragged Laney’s gaze away from the sudden mystery the new chief posed. Laney grabbed a couple of tissues from the box the hospital supplied and handed them to her sister. Janelle wiped her eyes and cleared her throat. “What about Joy?”

“We haven’t found Joy yet.”

“You think she’s alive?” Hope trembled in Janelle’s soft voice.

“We hope she is,” he answered. “We’re looking for her. We have searchers up on the mountain right now.”

“I wish I could remember.” Janelle put her hand to her head. “It’s like I have bubbles in my head that keep popping and fizzing. It’s all I can hear or see.”

Laney crossed to her sister’s side and stroked her hair away from her face. “It’s the concussion, baby. It’ll clear up soon.”

“What’s the last thing you do remember?” Doyle asked.

“We were going hiking. It was Joy’s twenty-first birthday, and that’s how she wanted to celebrate.” Janelle’s pale lips curved in a faint smile. “That’s so Joy. She loves the mountains more than anything. She just got hired by the Ridge County Tourism Board—did you know that? She’s supposed to start work next Monday. If anyone can turn us into a tourism mecca, it’s Joy.”

Anger, fear and grief braided through the center of Laney’s chest.

“Do you remember reaching the first shelter on the mountain?” Doyle asked.

“Yeah. Joy wanted to camp out in the open, but Missy and I—” Her voice broke, but she cleared her throat and continued. “Missy and I told her it was too cold to sleep out in the open. So we stopped at the shelter.”

“Did you see anyone on the mountain before then? Other hikers?”

Janelle’s brow creased. “I don’t know. I remember reaching the shelter. I remember going to bed—that new sleeping bag Laney got me for Christmas was so warm, it was almost like being in my own bed.” She shot a grin at Laney, but it faded as fast as it had appeared. “I think I was the first one to fall asleep.”

“What about on the hike up—do you remember meeting anyone?”

“I think there might have been someone....” Janelle worried with the IV tube, wincing as it tugged the cannula in the back of her hand. “I can’t remember. I can’t.” She closed her eyes, her forehead still wrinkled.

“Can’t we let her rest?” Alice Hanvey had been quiet during Doyle’s questioning, but she rose now, a mother tiger pouncing to her cub’s defense.

“She can’t remember right now,” Laney agreed, putting herself in the narrow space between Doyle and her sister’s hospital bed. She lowered her voice. “In ten minutes, she’ll probably be asking us where Missy and Joy are, and we’re going to have to tell her the truth this time. I wish she could help you. I promise you, I do. But she can’t. Not yet.”

“Maybe not ever,” Alice warned in a half whisper. “The last time she had a head injury, she lost most of her memories. She had to relearn almost everything. We still don’t know how much damage the concussion’s going to do.”

“It was worth a shot.” Doyle stood, pinning Laney between his lean, hard body and the hospital bed. His eyebrows quirked as she took a swift breath.

He smelled impossibly good, given that he’d just hiked up and down a mountain. She herself felt rumpled and sweaty, but he smelled like the beach on a sunny day, all fresh ocean breezes and a hint of sunscreen.

“Join me outside a sec?” He cupped her elbow, nudging her toward the door.

“Ray,” Janelle murmured from the hospital bed.

Doyle froze, his hand still on Laney’s arm. “I’m sorry?”

Janelle’s eyes drifted open. “The guy we met. I can’t remember much about him, but he said his name was Ray.” Her eyes fluttered closed again.

Doyle stared at her in consternation, clearly tempted to wake her back up and ask more questions. Laney tugged his arm, pulling him with her toward the door. He followed, frustration evident in the fierce set of his features.

“Do you know anyone named Ray?” he asked outside the room.

“There are a few men named Ray around here, but she knows them all. Didn’t it sound as if she didn’t know this guy?”

He nodded slowly, looking unsatisfied. “I’ll run the information past my detectives. Maybe one of them will have an idea.”

“Listen, I’ve been thinking.” She glanced at the closed door to Janelle’s room and lowered her voice. “The doctors say once they get Janelle out of the danger zone with the concussion, they’ll probably start giving her pain medicine for the head wound, so I don’t know how helpful it’ll be for me to sit here at her side, hoping she tells us something solid we can use. I need to be doing something more active to help find Joy.”

“You want to join a search party?”

“I’m a good hiker. I know the mountains as well as anyone up there.”

“Good. Because I’m planning to join the search myself, and I don’t know a thing about these hills. I could use someone to show me the way.” He brushed his hand down her arm again, the touch almost familiar now. “But it won’t be tonight. They’ll shut down the search parties once the sun sets.”